Whilst, Maharashtra is the only state in India, which has refused to extend deadlines for registration, many other states are now extending timelines for registration, whilst some states have not yet notified their RERA rules. The state of Goa, has not yet notified its draft rules and has extended registration till October. The State of Telangana is keen to extend the registration deadline to the next two or three months. The state of UP, had extended deadline upto 15th of August. The Haryana state, is also considering the same, courtesy, the requests from the Developers. Isn’t the extensions, granted by the state for registration under RERA rules, a violation of Section 3(1) of the Central Act, given that it does not mandate extensions by three months? RERA being a Central act passed by the Parliament, its dilution or change in the provisions a violation of the Central Act? Why is central government silent? Why no actions are taken against erring states?

The Telangana Government notified RERA on Thursday. The whole business of the Real Estate Developers in the city has reached a standstill. This was because many of the Developers are now grappling with RERA and have approached the authorities to become RERA compliant. This has therefore resulted in the slow – down of the business for the Developers, which may not rise for two more months. Whist, a review of the Telengana RERA Act, it is seen that unlike UP, Telangana, has brought in the ongoing projects under its ambit thereby striking a balance between the Developer and the Buyer giving equal importance to both. However, the projects which were approved prior to 1st January 2017, are exempt from RERA. This move, may not be welcome by the buyers and one more issue noteworthy here is that even Telangana RERA like Haryana has done away with the concept of Completion Certificate by substituting it with Occupancy Certificate. Are the buyers going to agitate against this move? One more aspect to be observed is that if the State of Telangana adopts the policy of its neighbour Maharashtra by not extending the deadline for registration and penalise those who have not registered themselves under the act or is it going to extend the deadline for registration, given the fact that the state notified the Rules belatedly and had even crossed the deadline for registration.

The RERA Act was enacted by the Union Government to bring in much needed transparency in the then unorganised real estate industry. The main objective of this enactment was to protect the buyers who had invested their time and money in the purchase of Properties. The buyers being the most vulnerable group needed protection from the dubious developers and builders, and hence with a view to protect them and to bring the Developers under the scanner, whereby they would be made accountable for their actions. But the Haryana state, in a bid to support the Developer had twisted the whole concept of the Central RERA Act, where it was mandatory for the developers to obtain a Completion Certificate to notify the buyers that the property is completed in all aspects, license is obtained and is perfectly ready for occupation and in habitation, along with the government records. However, the Haryana Govt., has completely done away with the concept of completion certificate by introducing Occupancy Certificate. An occupancy certificate would merely state that a particular tower or block is constructed according to building plan, an NOC from fire department is given along with lift and electricity. However, this was not envisaged as per RERA. Many developers may use this to escape of their liability. Is this right? Are the buyers going to take this down? The answer is no. Many of the buyers are moving to National Consumer Redressal Forums against the aforesaid dilution. Would this resolve their issue? Would the Developers go scot free, when the Government does not differentiate between a Completion Certificate or an Occupation Certificate?

RERA was introduced on 01.05.2017, with the main objective of bringing the much-needed transparency in the Real Estate Sector. The Act also emphasised that all the state governments have to enact RERA within 31st of July 2017 and most of the ongoing and new projects have to mandatorily registered on or before 31st July 2017. However, it is noticed that except for Maharashtra, none of the other states have viewed this move strictly. Most of them have them have started extending the deadlines for completion of the projects. For example, Maharashtra’s neighbour Goa and Karnataka have extended the deadlines for registration to October 2017. Tamil Nadu is yet to appoint a committee along with necessary staff and infrastructure. The state of UP and Haryana have also extended their deadlines for registration. By these extensions, the very purpose of RERA is defeated. The RERA was touted to be home buyer friendly and was aimed at redressing their issues. However, with most of the states extending the dead line and not adhering to rules and not initiating stringent measures against those who have not registered, the very purpose of RERA is getting defeated.